Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-10-15

author, who showed great scientific in
gel uity in hi, Improvements, albeit they
were hardly practicable. The followers
Of the latter two systems would
scarcely recognize each other when
they met-they were as Puritan and
Roman Charlottesville Isaac Pitmanites,
always EDglishDen just arrived on ouI
saores, were looked upon as species OF
shorthand suspects. But those days
nave passed away. Shorthand writers
of oil systems now fraterniZe. Their
arguments about the merits Of one sYmbo
over another sometimes seem TO be more
exciting than the question would war
rant; but they have come to admit that il
writing sh ort- hand it is the man thai
makes the system, and not the system
the man.
The proceedings of Congress have beer
reported fiji ;inllY since 1850. To. gen
tlemen who have done this work, anC
who do 1t now, are at the very hen 1 Of
their profession. all of them use Ions
forms in writing words, or, to speak more
clearly, they have adopted few, /. any
of tie improvements made nI
various authors in recent years The e
porter of the Senate receives $50, 900 t
yesr for the Job, and each of the five C1ii
(cial reporters employed by the House III
Representatives is paid $4,000 year. II
reporting the proc edings the repor.t -
follow one after another, each reporter
| taking enough notes to make, when writ
len out, column of the Congressional
Globe
Shorthand has been found especi .llJ
Us eful in preserving record of l. ga
proceedings. 1t was introduced in he
| courts of New York about twenty tive
years ago, and nearly all the state courts
of the principal states and territories mo "
employ official court reporters.
Photographers are now employed as
amanuenses to very large extent in
law offices, in stores, and by corpore-
tions of various kinds where consider
sble amount Of correspondence has TO be
attended to promptly every day. Au-
! thors occasionally use the shorthand
writer, but be will never be popular with
| the literary man, for most writer's of
books and important magazine contribu-
tions cannot "thiuk out" their articles
fast enough to utilize the swift handed
scribe. Besides, most writer's prefer TO
do their work alone; the presence of s
second party is apt to make them nervous
and be a hindraIce rather than help.
But every writer aud author, certainly
every Journalist, should possess knowl-
edge Of elementary shorthand. The time
saved over the common writing would
amount TO years in q long life. In the
following words the number OF move
ments required to write the word respect
lively in long hand and shorthand sre
given, Ease, long hana 80, shorthand 2;
though, long hand "a, shorthand 2; &C
commodate, long hand 43, short hand 2;
incomprehensible, long-hand so, short
hard 5
Professional shorthand work, to speak
plainly, is drudgery, but it is well-paid
drudgery, and competent hard working
shorthand writer earns every dollar that
he makes. The salaries of Official court
stenugraphers in New York run from
$4,000 to $4,000, with extra fees for tran
scrlOing their notes. In other states the
yearly earnings of shorthand court re-
porters will average $500. The report
ers Of Congressional committees each re-
ceives $4,000 yearly. The private short
hand secretary to the President is paid a
salary OF $500; Secretary Fairchild's
stenographer, $4,000, and Secretary Endi-
colts, $1,000 The pay of the shorthand
amsnuenses runs from $40 to $50 week,
the higher wages being paid to exception
ally competent workers.
Twenty years ago the newspapers were
IN the habit of making full reports of lee
lures ana meetings, aud short hand repor-
ters were in great demand for journals
tic work, Inst is ell changed now. 1t is
so rare that full shorthand reports are
required by the newspapers that such
work is given to men specially employed
for me occasion; they are paid from Sc
to $40 column.
The mistakes made by inexperienced or
ignorant stenogrsphers in transcribing
their notes form an amusing part of the
shorthand writer's "reminiscences. The
same shorthand sign will sometimes
stand for two or more words having sd
entirely different meaning, and unless
d reporter has good common serst
and is careful in writing outs his
notes he is liable to make ths
most ridiculous errors. To illustrator
A certain lecturer quoted the Miltopde
couplet: "But come, thou goddess. fair
and free, in heaven ycleped Euphrosyhe,
and had the pleasure of reading next
"Bue came that goddess fair
and free, in heaven she crept and froze her
knee" The Latin phrase, Anxious So |
crates, amlcus Plato est, sed major |
veritas, was translated, 81 may cuss So |
crates, l may cuss Plato, said Major |
Veritss" An English Judge who took |
shorthand notes found himself unable t. |
read sentence in his manuscript, and |
asked reporter to help him out. SIT |
looks like, Go and call the baby" he |
said. The sentence turned out to be, "Go |
aud call the bobby" (policemsp). Among
other ludicrous examples of shorthand |
are, ''grocery seats" for |
''gross receipts" "dsmn rickety knees"
for "tamarack knees;" counsel broughi
pauper in evidence" TOR counsel offered |
paper in evidence;" "coal porter" for
''colporteur;" "she appeared to be some
Whist knee-sprung and nervous" for ''shs
appeared TO be somewhat unstrung and
nervous" For the classical EXPIRE .sion,
'Give me but light, and Ajax asks nc
more," the following was given, "Give
me light; on, jackass! no more"
The next quarter of q century will prob
ably witness great changes IN the short
hand writer's art. AS full reports OF
speeches and lectures have almost ceased
TO appear in the daily newspapers, so the
notes of testimony now taken
n courts will have to be "cut down" by
,he stenographer, and the correctness OF